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TO THE 4 

REPUBLICANS ANI) PEOPLE 


OF 


Xew-Novk, TevmsyAvama, av\d Tivgima, 


UPON THE 


State of presidential parties. 


BY A CITIZEN OF NEW-YORK. 


September , ) 824. 


Vv 1, 




U. S. K 


NEW-YORK : 


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PRINTED BY WILLIAM GRATT VN 


1824 









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AN ADDRESS, &c. 


FELLOW CITIZENS, 

An advocate of principles and men, begs your permission to 
address you a few plain considerations upon the great political 
question which now agitates our country. 

The four Presidential parties which now divide the Republican 
party and the Nation, are not perhaps very unequal in the num¬ 
ber of their respective adherents. It is useless at this period to 
enquire into the causes which have produced this unfortunate 
state of parties. It is sufficient to know, that unless this present 
attitude is speedily changed, no choice will be made by the elec¬ 
tors Some compromise of predelictions must take place, or the 
contest must be renewed more fiercely than ever, in the House 
of Representatives. 

All reflecting citizens unite in deprecating that alarming alter¬ 
native. New-fork, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, have the deep¬ 
est stake in averting the calamity, and yet seem to rush wilfully 
on the danger. The only step which can prevent it, a compro¬ 
mise between them, upon some one of the candidates—is left 
wholly unattempted. They ought not surely to neutralize the 
votes of each other—to divest themselves of their common and 
just influence in the union, without, at least, an effort to act in 
concert. They must, therefore, resort to principles , as the ba¬ 
sis of compromise It is time that the Democratic.party in those 
states should pause 7 ere their influence is sacrificed in a useless 
quarrel about local and personal predelictions.—For useless, and 
worse than useless, are all those contests, if the question must at 
last be decided in the House of Representatives. It is time that 
the Democratic party in those states should unite in repressing the 
turbulence and intrigues which this contest has produced, if they 
value our future political tranquillity Neither is it fit. that this 
question should be left to the scurrillity and arrogance of presses, 
conducted, for the most part with such scanty proportion ofjudg- 
mant, principle, or decency. The effect of their labours calls 
more loudly every day for the hand of correction. They serve 
only to create and embitter personal dissensions, and to inflame 


4 


our present unhappy divisions. It is time that a compromise 
should be brought about by a recurrence to 'principles , which 
may at once vindicate the purity and fairness of the election, and 
secure to the country an able and popular Chief Magistrate. 
Every consideration, therefore, which tends to concentrate the 
views of those states upon the same individual, should receive 
their instant sanction. Such principles and considerations there 
are, Fellow Citizens, and such, though hastily and briefly pre¬ 
sented, will, 1 am confident, command your attention. 

And in the first place , Fellow Citizens, do not the portents of 
the times, call on you to watch and check the workings of the of¬ 
ficial patronage and influence of the executive departments ? Two 
of the four candidates for the Presidency, which yet remain, are, 
and ror eight years have been, dispensers of the favors and bounty 
of the two most important and influential departments of the Go¬ 
vernment. A third candidate had leaped from the same eminence 
over the invisible boundary of public opinion, and entered the lists 
flushed with the freshest hopes of young ambition. Nor was this 
ill ! even a fourth member of the cabinet, such is the magical in¬ 
fluence of those departments, was at the commencement, announ¬ 
ced as a candidate ! What is the secret of all this ? Is it, that a 
seat in the cabinet, per se , so endows its occupant, that he is ex 
ofiicio qualified to wield the destinies of the nation ? I shall hard¬ 
ly be contradicted when I say that two, at least, of the four gen¬ 
tlemen who filled the executive departments at the commencement 
of this discussion, owed all their hopes and prospect of support, to 
the stations they occupied. But for that circumstance, their 
names could never have been seriously mentioned. What then, 
J ask again, is the secret of all those partial yearnings toward the 
Secretaries of all the departments ? Is it not the silent, the con¬ 
centrated, the ever active influence of executive patronage ? Of 
the two members of the cabinet which still remain, so warmly 
disputing for the place of their principal, will any body deny that 
they owe a great degree of their prominence to their pedestals of 
office ? Much as we hear from the zealous partizans of one, of 
his being the only republican candidate, does it admit of dispute, 
that if he had not possessed the control of a most powerful depart¬ 
ment of the Government, his republicanism would have been on¬ 
ly of ordinary stamp and consistency ? Or do the panegyrizing 
friends of the other require us to believe that his learning, his 
writings, every thing he has ever spoke or written, including the 
4th of July oration, would have kindled such fervent admiration 
and zeal within them, if he had been at this period, the incumbent 
of a Professor’s chair, instead of the department of state ? Those 
who can believe that the influence of office has not had much, very 
much to do with these eager demonstrations of attachment and ad¬ 
miration, must have shut their eyes to the movements, and their 
oars to the clamors that surround them. 


Fctr the justice of these remarks, Fellow Citizens, I appeal to 
your own observation, good sense, and reflection. Is this not 
enough to give us just grounds of apprehension, that if this influ¬ 
ence be not now resisted, the choice of a cabinet candidate has 
indeed already grown into a precedent ? Is there not room for 
jealousy, that the public voice may be forestalled by the retainers 
of Oflice t That servile worshippers of power and patronage, may 
have installed themselves organs of the popular will ? If such 
things are, and are permitted to go on, the choice by electors is 
an idle ceremony ! All the share which the constitution has giv¬ 
en you in the election, you may as well formally vurrender to the 
executive at once, if you do not take the alarm before the • k cur¬ 
sed hebenon” of this influence shall have benumbed every nerve 
in the body politic. 

The alarm has been already sounded. The powerful and de¬ 
mocratic state of Pennsylvania has led the van ! >he has regis¬ 
tered her solemn protest against stretching the line of cabinet suc¬ 
cession any further. Upon that principle her convention at Harris- 
burgh, on the fourth of March last, rested with emphasis. In 
their address upon that occasion, they have the following remarks 
upon ihe subject: 

“ For twenty-four years none but a Secretary of the Cabinet has 
“ been elevated to the Presidency. We do not object to the dis- 
“ tinguished democrats who have holden, or are now contending 
6i for this station, but we do object to the uninterrupted continuance 
“ of a Secretary dynasty. The period has surely arrived when 
“ President should be elected from the ranks of the people. If 
“ it has not, how soon will the Secretaries, claim, by usage and 
“ prescription, the exclusive right of nomination, and from the 
“ powerful patronage in their gifts, may be but too likely to ob- 
“ tain it? I his artificial system of cabinet succession to the Pre- 
“ sidency is little less dangerous and anti-republican than the he- 
“ reditary monarchies of Europe If a link in this chain of Secre- 
“ tary dynasties can not be broken now, then may we be fettered 
“ by it for ever. Andrew Jackson comes pure, untramelled, 
“ and unpledged from the bosom of the people.” 

That stand was worthy of the democratic state of Pennsylvania. 
Acting in conformity with this principle, that convention nominated 
Gen, Jackson as a candidate for the Presidency. But, unfortu¬ 
nately, the invincible objections of New-York and Virginia to his 
pretensions, founded on his known defects of temper and qualifica¬ 
tions, must prevent a compromise upon him. Is it therefore too 
much to expect from Pennsylvania, that proceeding upon the 
principle she has declared, she will upon principles of compro¬ 
mise, consent to adopt that statesman , who also “comes before 
the nation, pure, untrammelled, and unpledged from the bosom 
of the people ?” If this desirable compromise cannot be made 
upon General Jackson, as is most certain, will she not consent to 


u 


compromise upon Mr. Clay, who is not much Tess popular in 
that State ? Popular as that meritorious and patriotic General is 
every where, as the military defender of his country, the distinc¬ 
tion between the honor due to a successful general, and a station 
requiring an accomplished and practised Statesman, will, and 
should be preserved. This is the settled sentiment of more than 
three fourths of this nation,- and nothing can alter it. That pro¬ 
portion could never be induced to confide the civil and political 
interests of the country to a mere military leader, whose military 
success and military disposition were his only recommendations to 
the Chief Magistracy. Upon this subject it is impossible to speak 
without pain and regret. Gen. Jackson has rendered a brilliant 
service to his country. Covered with glory, he derived no new 
lustre from the military station which a grateful country bestowed 
on him. When he chose to retire from that, he retired with the 
blessings of his country upon the evening of his life. Still, pain¬ 
ful as it is to discuss the pretensions of a man who has deserved so 
well of the country, it is the duty of all who would likewise de¬ 
serve well of it, to speak of them as they are : to strip them of 
the false glare of military renown, and consider him as a man and 
a statesman only. The nature and practice of our government, the 
public interest, and the tranquillity, if not the safety of our coun¬ 
try, require, that statesmen, and not mere soldiers, should guide 
its destinies. Every thing in the past life, in the known temper 
and character of Gen. Jackson, forbid the idea of his having a sin¬ 
gle ingredient of the statesman in his composition , unless it may be 
a love of power. If he is a fit and qualified candidate for the Pre¬ 
sidency, then we have never yet had a President who was fit and 
qualified for the station. Why speak of the rare prudence, the 
almost godlike judgment and temper of a Washington, the vast po¬ 
litical knowledge and experience of a Jefferson and a Madison, if 
the very opposite of all these is the fittest candidate for the Presi¬ 
dency ? All the prudence and discernment, all the talents, stu¬ 
dies, and toils of the wisest statesmen, are then but empty vanity, 
an useless vexation of the spirit ! 

But were Gen. Jackson the most accomplished Statesman of the 
age, with the light which he has himself afforded us upon his per¬ 
sonal characteristics, he ought never to be elevated to the Presi¬ 
dency. 

An executive of temper so violent and uncontrolable, and of 
conduct so arbitrary, would scarcely be restrained by the incon¬ 
venient limits of the constitution and laws. A powerful and vio¬ 
lent opposition could not fail to be provoked. Contests would 
succeed, fatal to the tranquillity and happiness of the country. 

Of military despotism from Gen. Jackson , or any other man in 
the present situation of our republic, for one, I entertain no ap¬ 
prehensions. But we should unavoidably have, what is scarcely 
less terrible, a civil despotism. We have had already, even -at 


this early age of our republic, one “ reign of terror/’ Once has 
this country actually smarted under oppression, by having a Chief 
Magistrate as violent in temper as he was weak in judgment. 
From that source proceeded all those measures which destroyed 
the public tranquillity, and jeopardized our political institutions. 
What then are we to expect from the administration of a man, 
compared with whom the ruler of that period was a model of equa¬ 
nimity and prudence ? What, from a man, so many of whose pre¬ 
sent followers are ready to justify and applaud all the wanton vi¬ 
olence and cruelties with which his military career has been tar¬ 
nished ? What, from one, whose boasted maxims of conduct, 
whose temper and disposition, would all conspire to embroil us at 
home and abroad ? We should then have, not the “ reign of ter¬ 
ror,” but “ the reign of Fury” In political affairs, above all 
others, it is true, that if we “ sow the wind, we shall reap the 
whirlwind.” 

Let not the political tranquillity of our country be so lightly held, 
so lightly endangered. Let not a precedent so alarming, so in¬ 
viting to military ambition, be established. Is the civil adminis¬ 
tration of our country to be bestowed on any man as a military 
reward ? Then all meritorious military officers have the strongest 
claims to all the civil and political offices in the government! 

To the republicans and the people of Pennsylvania these con¬ 
siderations are of the most peculiar import. If Pennsylvania 
would maintain the proud title which has been so justly assigned 
her, “ the key stone of the Federal arch,” she must be the 
guardian of concord, the bearer of the olive branch, and not the 
blind follower or champion of any individual. The more enthu¬ 
siastic and fiercer adherents of Gen. Jackson, must themselves per¬ 
ceive, that three fourths of the nation are, upon principle, irrecon- 
ceivably opposed to a military President : that it is impossible, 
with all the reprehensible levity, and the more excusable enthu¬ 
siasm which can be drawn into his service, that they can acquiesce 
in his pretensions. They must begin to observe, that the more 
hotly they pursue their object the more coldly the country looks 
upon it. 

These observations are made with pain and reluctance. If they 
give pain or offence to “ any dear friend” of Gen. Jackson, to him 
1 would say, in the w ords of Brutus— u that my love for the He¬ 
ro is no less than his.” If then that friend demand why J am 
“ against his elevation,” this is my answer : “ not that I love the 
Hero less but that I love my country more.” 

To return—the convention at Harrisburgb have asserted a 
principle which must recommend itself to the Democratic party in 
New-York and Virginia as the Jirst and strongest basis oj compro¬ 
mise. 

Pennsylvania, though first is not alone in this declaration.— 
Ohio, equally democratic and equally disinterested, has recently as 


serted the same principle in the most forcible manner. This was 
done by the convention recently held at Columbus, which nomi¬ 
nated an electoral ticket in support of Henry Clay for President, 
and Nathan Sanford, for Vice-President. That meeting compo¬ 
sed of more than three hundred of her enlightened and influential 
citizens from every quarter of the state, have, m unison, with the 
sentiments of an unquestionable majority of her people, made a so¬ 
lemn public declaration of the same principle. The very able ad¬ 
dress of that convention, on the 17 th of July last, holds the follow¬ 
ing language on the subject: 

“ As the period approached when it would be necessary to se- 
44 lect a successor to President Monroe, it was altogether proper, 
“ trial much reflection should be devoted to the principles upon 
44 which such selection should be made. The names of, at least, 
44 three members of Mr. Munroe’s cabinet, were pretty distinct- 
44 ly presented to the public as Candidates to succeed him. Re- 
44 fleeting men could not but see that a struggle for the Presiden- 
“ cy between the principal Secretaries, was fraught with much 
“ evil to the nation, inasmuch as it must distract the harmony of 
44 her councils, if it did not endanger the integrity of her function- 
44 aries, and jeopardize her peace and reputation.—Besides these 
“ mischiefs, to select one of the Secretaries was to continue the 
44 same influence in office, which virtually would be a departure 
44 from the maxim that rotation in office was essential to the pre- 
“ servation of the republic. For to change the man and retain 
44 the influence, would be to repose upon the shadow and abandon 
Ci the substance. The considerations here briefly hinted, deter- 
“ mined many of the most reflecting citizens of the country to 
44 adopt the opinion that no member of the present executive ca- 
44 binet ought to be selected to succeed Mr. Monroe ; and this de- 
4< termination was formed without any disrespect for the talents 
44 or characters of the incumbents themselves. It rested upon 
ii public principle and upon public duty — and on these alone 
“ On looking round, for some person out of the cabinet, and un- 
44 connected with the executive administration of the national go- 
44 vernment, a large portion of the citizens of the West naturally 
44 directed their attention to Henry Clay, of Kentucky. He was 
44 known to the nation, as a liberal, intelligent, independent states- 
44 man, accurately informed of the best interests of the whole.— 

44 Frank, bold, and determined; powerful, if not irresistible in 
44 advocating the measures his judgment approved : affable and un- 
44 assuming in his manner, as firm and unyielding in his purpose. 

44 He was known to the world as an American statesman, who 
44 fearlessly urged his countrymen to the last fearful appeal against 
44 the wrongs and insults of a foreign power. Who ably sustain- 
44 ed her in that contest and who, when the most extraordinary 
c< reverses and changes of public affairs in Europe cast a cloud 
u over her prospects of success, did not shrink from the respon- 


sibility of uniting with others in extricating her from the perils 
“ with which she was surrounded. He was known to the world 
Ct as having contributed his full share to the success of this nego- 
*• tiation. And he was known also, to the world as the first states- 
“ man, who had raised his voice in the councils of his country, in 
“ behalf of the liberties of South America. Thus known, res- 
“ pected, and admired, at home and abroad, a portion of the citi- 
“ zens of the West determined to nominate him as the successor 
“ of Mr. Monroe And this nomination they originally made and 
“ still support upon broad national grounds, and not upon section- 
“ al and local views, as has been supposed and asserted. 

But even these public declarations of two powerful states are 
sot all the argument in favour of this first and great principle of 
compromise.—It may safely be asserted, that at this moment there 
is a decided majority of the democratic party in New-York, Penn¬ 
sylvania, and Virginia, taken together, opposed to the pretensions 
of either of the cabinet candidates ;—that a compromise of those 
states would elect Mr. Clay, there can be no doubt. It is on all 
hands admitted that the votes of six Western slates, viz. Kentucky, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Louisiana, in all forty-six, 
will be given to him: The united votes of New-York, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and Virginia, amounting to eighty-eight , would therefore se¬ 
cure his election ; without taking into account the votes which he 
will receive from Maryland, and those Which he has an equal 
chance of receiving from New-Jersey, Delaware and Alabama. 

An electoral ticket in his support was formed last winter in Vir¬ 
ginia. In Pennsylvania, a ticket is understood to be forming at 
this moment, with flattering hopes of success. The people of 
those states will therefore have an opportunity to enforce this 
compromise if the principles on which it is suggested shall re¬ 
ceive their sanction. 

In New-York the prospect of Mr. Clay, apart from any com¬ 
promise, to obtain the votes of that state, is least equal to that of 
any other candidate. To a compromise upon democratic princi¬ 
ples ,, which leads to his election, that state will undoubtedly ac¬ 
cede. I proceed to the second consideration, therefore, which 
calls for this compromise. 

In the second place, then, Fellow-Citizens, does not the future 
tranquillity of the democratic party, and consequently of the coun¬ 
try, require that that candidate should be selected, above all others, 
who has avoided, and who would not therefore after his elevation, 
be made a party to those violent collisions which have been pro¬ 
duced between some of the parties ? Do we not need, to hold the 
balance, at this time, one, who, in addition to his own characteris¬ 
tic magnanimity, has not been involved, with his political adhe¬ 
rents, in any of the ferocious contentions of the day ? At a period 
like this what must ensue, should any man who is liable to the 
charge of irritability or vindictiveness, be invested with the sfu* 


10 


preme power ? What, if a candidate should get the reins of govern¬ 
ment, whose supporters will recognize no other true republican 
candidate, and who of course recognise no other true republicans 
but such as support him ? It would be worse than folly to expect 
a liberal and even-handed course from any such administrations. 
The experiment must be fatal to our political tranquillity and to 
every thing like a wise and liberal policy in public affairs. 

These considerations call with fresh force for a compromise 
upon Mr. <Tav. He, alone, has preserved the fortunate attitude, 
fortunate for himself, thrice fortunate for the country, of maintain¬ 
ing his previous hold upon the good-will and confidence of all par¬ 
ties, notwithstanding their local and personal predelictions. He 
has been pushed into the arena by no noisy, belligerent partizans. 
He alone has not parted with the olive-branch, with which he has 
so often calmed the rage of contending parties. 

In the third place , Fellow-Citizens, are there not measures of 
national policy, now in contemplation and already entered upon, 
which are of the last importance to the welfare and prosperity of 
our country, and the successful and vigorous prosecution of which 
must depend upon the elevation of a statesman who is identified 
with them ? I allude to the great system of internal improvements , 
of which Congress so long ago laid the foundation, and of which 
the great outlines were again discussed at the last session. No 
state in the union has a deeper interest in the progress of that pro¬ 
vident and patriotic system than the state of Virginia. And yet 
from a certain school of her statesmen, or rather of her jurists, 
the first and almost the only opposition to it has originated : 1 say, 
no state has a deeper interest in supporting this policy, and for 
confirmation 1 need only appeal to the recently projected commu¬ 
nication, now ascertained to be perfectly practicable between the 
Potomac and the waters of the Ohio. It is true that, compared 
with the general national interest in the speedy completion of this 
work, the direct interest of Virginia is of little significance. Still 
it is apparent that such a communication cannot but be highly be¬ 
neficial to her local interests. How strange then, how preposte¬ 
rous would it be in the people of that state to countenance the op¬ 
position which has been set up from certain quarters in it, to a sys¬ 
tem which traces its birth to her own idolized Jefferson : the 
earliest champion and now the revered patriarch of the democra¬ 
tic party ? A system too which promises, in the very first stages 
of its progress, more direct advantage to Virginia than to any 
other state in the Union ? 

But are there not political motives of the most irresistible de 
scription which call for the execution of this and other great na¬ 
tional internal improvements ? Every such work, every new chan¬ 
nel of intercourse is a new bond of union between the different 
and remote sections of our vast territory. The high and para¬ 
mount consideration of the preservation of the union, urges thi* 


II 


policy upon us, with fresh and added force, every revolvipgyear. 
For, every year and everyday, the tide of our population rolls on 
to the West, carrying civilization and extending the duties and 
cares of our government to the Rocky Mountains. Whoever, as 
a statesman, can overlook the silent, but powerful influence of this 
course of events upon the integrity and stability ot the union, must 
be ignorant or unmindful of his first duties as its guardian. The 
lofty barrier which nature would have erected between the East 
and the West, the Allegany Mountains, it is true we do now poli¬ 
tically surmount It is in our power to vanquish it physically also 
—to prostrate and level, in a manner, the mighty wall that nature 
has planted between us. That stupendous and patriotic task has, 
in fact, been already begun, with a wisdom and munificence wor¬ 
thy of a free and enlightened government. The Cumberland road 
—that lasting monument of the wise, liberal and patriotic policy of 
a Jefferson, has opened a way through the bosom of the mountains. 
Let us pursue, by a still grander and more efficient channel, the 
great objects to which he has pointed us, and the high destiny to 
which as a nation, we ought to aspire. That communication, be¬ 
tween the waters of the Petoniac and the Ohio, once opened, and 
those mountains which have defied the hand of time and the tem¬ 
pi >ts of heaven for ages, sink beneath the energies of an enlighten¬ 
ed m'ople When that shall have been once accomplished, upon 
a scale commensurate with its importance and the resources of the 
nation, we may proudly exclaim, “ There are no longer any Alle- 
ganies!” 

Other works of the same description, are demanded in different 
quarters of the country, for the establishment of easy and availa¬ 
ble military communications, between different points of the sea¬ 
board and the interior. Once for all, then I ask, are these para¬ 
mount and primary objects of national policy, to be confided, I will 
not say with equal propriety, but with safety to any statesman but 
him who has been their earliest, constant and triumphant cham¬ 
pion ? With the success of that policy, the elevation of the states¬ 
man alluded to, must be considered in a great degree identified.— 
He has been its chief support and main pillar in all the struggles 
it has had to encounter. It is the favorite feature of his national 
policy, and its immediate and vigorous prosecution must depend 
upon confiding it to such an executive—one who will press it for¬ 
ward, instead of retarding it. with all its influence—who is not an 
equivocal friend but a zealous and devoted supporter of the cause. 

Above all, has not Virginia, (if indeed any considerable propor¬ 
tion of her people are not friendly to this policy, as they have 
been represented,) something on this score also to compromise ? 
Ought she, after the first steps in this system have been taken by 
her own Jefferson, whose constitutional orthodoxy she would be 
the last to question, to oppose herself to this policy ? Ought she to 
press upon the nation a candidate opposed to it, after having given 


Presidents so long in undisturbed succession ? And all this, be¬ 
cause a certain class of her leading lawyers are obstinately op¬ 
posed to this system, from notions of constitutional construction, 
which, novel as they are, are already thrice and four times explo¬ 
ded ! 1 say exploded—because the national legislature has again 
and again over-ruled them by the most decisive majorities : and 
because at every fresh agitation of the subject the supporters of 
those doctrines have diminished in a ratio equally decisive ? Is it, 
then, for that school still to press their notions vainly and pertina¬ 
ciously upon a settled majority of the nation ? Surely the people 
of Virginia never will consent to quit the plain and now beaten 
path of construction which her own Jefferson first practically esta¬ 
blished, and entangle themselves in those webs of subtilty and so¬ 
phistry with which it is so idly attempted to imprison our national 
energies and resources. 

It cannot be but matter of surprise to reflecting politicians, that 
the representatives of Virginia and Kentucky should have been so 
unanimously opposed to each other, upon another great question 
of national policy which has been recently decided—the Tariff.— 
Situated as they are in the same climate, raising the same staples 
for market, deprived as both are of any foreign demand on which 
they can rely, it might have been expected that the efforts of Ken¬ 
tucky to extend and improve the home market, would have found 
the warmest supporter in Virginia. Instead of which, her repre¬ 
sentatives, with one exception, who deserves to be remembered 
for his firmness and independence, voted uniformly against the bill. 
There seems to have been something terrific in the sound of‘ta¬ 
riff,’ at which the representatives of the Southern states had been 
taught to rally. For, nothing else could induce the representa¬ 
tives of Virginia, a state which grows grain and tobacco for mar¬ 
ket, to resist the only policy which can secure her that market at 
home which she certainly does not enjoy abroad. For in what 
foreign market is it that the staples of that state, are, at this mo¬ 
ment in demand ? Or is Virginia so well satisfied with the present 
home market, that she does not care to see it improved and ex¬ 
tended ? The interests of Virginia are certainly identified with 
those of all the states which raise the same staples and experience 
the same want of a market. An opposition from the cotton grow¬ 
ing states was less to be wondered at ; but could it be the interest 
of Virginia, to oppose, for a moment, the policy of the other grain 
and tobacco growing districts of the country ? What could induce 
her representatives to abandon that practical policy and surrender 
themselves to the chimerical apprehensions of those from the 
commercial and cotton growing districts ? Apprehensions, which 
are already acknowledged to have been groundless and with 
which, if they were not entirely so, Virginia had nothing in com¬ 
mon. Is it io political motives, then, that we are to trace this 
course of her representatives ? But I will not enquire further 


13 


since that question is happily settled. I will only enquire wheth ¬ 
er on that ground she will now oppose the only compromise which 
can save us from the dreaded alternative which now stares us in 
the face—an election by the House of Representatives ? 

In the fourth place —Fellow Citizens, if any regard is to be due 
to local considerations, (and much is undoubtably paid to them,) 
are there not many reasons why the people of the West should be 
gratified by the elevation of their favorite Statesman ? In no sec¬ 
tion of the country has a firmer and truer attachment to the union 
been manifested than in the west. In the midst of all their suffer¬ 
ing from British invasion, and savage hostility during the late war, 
when their best blood flowed so liberally in defence of their coun¬ 
try, no threat, no complaint, no murmur, escaped them. They 
were at home, the firmest friends of the government, and in the 
field, the bravest and hardiest defenders of their country’s soil. 
On the north-western frontier, under the gallant Harrison, and 
the venerable Shelby, and on the banks of the Mississippi, under 
the Hero of New-Orleans, they exhibited equal bravery and pa¬ 
triotism. The closer they were pressed by their enemies, the 
more elastic was the vigor with which they repelled them. They 
bled and suffered without repining, in a war which was induced 
by outrages on our commerce and seamen ; subjects in which Jheir 
interest was less immediate and direct than that of any other^quar- 
ter of the union. They looked only to the national honor, and 
the wanton insults and injuries which had been sustained. No 
selfish sectional views were ever permitted to find a resting place 
on that side of the mountains. Would to Heaven that as much 
could be said in favour of another section of the union, which is 
now so loud in support of their candidate from local considera¬ 
tions ! That section urges much in favor of a northern or eastern 
President, because, forsooth, they have given but one President 
to the union ? One would have thought that the specimen they 
then gave, might somewhat abate their ardor to furnish another 
from the same identical magazine. But why talk of the local 
claims of a particular section of our country, because it has had 
but one President, when another section, superior in population 
conspicuous for patriotism and attachment to the administration in 
the hour of its utmost need, has, as yet, furnished none ? If these 
narrow considerations are to have weight, (and it is unfortunate, 
that they will, in spite of reason and good sense, have great 
weight,) let it be remembered that the western states have now, 
for the first time, presented a candidate for the Presidency. And 
now, when they present a candidate, certainly second to none in 
talents and qualifications, does it become New-England, of all 
other sections of the union, to urge her local claims ? Upon that 
subject, surely, “ nothing would so much become’ 7 her ‘ as mo¬ 
dest stillness and humility’ until certain scenes, which were acted 
upon that theatre, with almost universal applause, during the war, 


14 


were less freshly remembered ! The same individuals who were 
then so busy “ in giving the tone” to New-England politics, are 
now the loudest in asserting her local claims ! After so many 
southern Presidents, they insist, as a matter of right and justice, 
upon a northern President—forgetting that a western section has 
an existence also. That it exceeds New-England in population, 
and still more in fertility and resources. That it is every day in¬ 
creasing in power and weight, with a pace that seems almost ma¬ 
gical. But New-England still fondly clings to the ‘ olden time.’ 
She cannot realize that the short space of twenty-years has redu¬ 
ced her rank in the scale, to less than a fifth ! She would still, 
in a manner, refuse to recognize any other divisions than ‘ north¬ 
ern’ and ‘ southern,’ with which she began at the beginning! 
Such are the ‘ local claims' of the only part of the union which 
has attempted to urge those narrow considerations. But is it not 
clear, that even on their own chosen ground, the assertors of 
those claims have less to urge, in every point of view, than the 
people of the west ? 

I need not add how much to be deprecated are all such appeals 
to local jealousies and prejudices, I should not have approached 
the topic but to rep 1 the overweening reliance upon it which 
has occasionally been manifested in that quarter. A majority of 
those citizens of New-England, who, during the late war, strug¬ 
gled in vain against the tide of disaffection and revolt which envi¬ 
roned them, will acknowledge the justice of these remarks. 
They will themselves insist, that the dark scenes of that period 
may justly be remembered till the actors in them shall have ceas¬ 
ed to haunt the stage—till then they will never approve of urging 
the local claims of New-England. 

In thp fifth place —Fellow Citizens, if those abuses, which have 
been so loudly proclaimed, exist in the executive departments of 
the government, on whom can we so safely rely for their correc¬ 
tion as on that candidate who has been entirely unconnected with 
any of those departments ? A statesman whose whole political 
life has been without fear and without reproach, as it has above 
suspicion. Whether abuses do exist, in all the luxuriance which 
has been so often affirmed, or not, things have certainly been done, 
some secretly, some openly, which in less courtly times, would 
have been named abuses. Of absolute corruption in the expendi¬ 
ture or management of the public money by the heads of any of 
those departments, I will not, for a moment, believe the exist¬ 
ence. But of favoritism in contracts, in appointments to office, 
and in the distribution of the patronage of the executive depart¬ 
ments, he must be very charitable indeed who is not compelled 
to entertain strong suspicions. I am equally forced to suspect that 
all is not sound somewhere, when I see one press after another 
starting up at the seat of government, under the auspices and eye 
of one, and another, and a third of those secretaries ; each wear- 


v> 


ing the livery, and supported in pen and purse by the liveried re¬ 
tainers of their respective departments. One however, that for 
a while “ overcame us like a summer cloud,” has lately vanished 
from sight ; having been absorbed by a kindred cloud ‘ in mid 
Heaven 5 —They 

“ Come like shadows—so depart.” 

But shadows as they are—they are the shadows of no less living 
bodies than the secretaries of three departments ! Never be¬ 
fore have those bodies dared, in such a manner, to overshadow 
the land ! The attempt is new, and ought to receive the most 
decided and severe reprobation. An energetic executive, and 
an enemy to abuses, might, long ago, have repressed it. It ought 
not to be borne, that the heads of any of those departments, with 
all the patronage they hold in their hands, should, when that is 
found to work too slowly, subsidize the press, and proceed to lay 
under the ban of the administration, all who venture to scrutinize 
their acts. It is no more to be endured, that another organ, more 
scurrilous, but less servile, bearing the standard of another de¬ 
partment, should denounce all who do not recognize his claim to 
the character of the only true republican candidate. Never be¬ 
fore were those secretaries suffered to erect their heads so high, 
and stretch their arms so wide ! Whether such doings, as Secre¬ 
taries, do not indicate stomachs, that, as Presidents, would be apt 
to digest abuses, is for you, Fellow Citizens, to determine. 

Fellow-citizens, does it not concern the purity of our political 
atmosphere, that these noxious weeds, sprung up in the rank soil 
of executive patronage, should be withered by public sentiment, at 
once and forever ? Or shall it pass into a precedent, that these 
executive departments shall have each its retained and pensioned 
press ;—ready to be employed as the rallying point of a faction ; 
as the indiscriminate and daily panegyrist of its patron : or as the 
tool of an administration that may chance to need an apologist ?— 
The importance of this question is not measured by the present 
limited influence of those presses. The experiment is, as yet, in 
its infancy. But when it shall have attained to maturity, uncheck¬ 
ed and unresisted, its effects will be felt through the whole coun¬ 
try. By combination, those presses may not only give the tone to 
the political sentiments of a great proportion of the people, but, if 
it so please them, may dictate to the President himself and to Con¬ 
gress. Are these the functions for which those departments are 
designed ? Are the heads of departments, which haye assumed 
functions of this nature, the fittest correctors of public abuses ? 

If abuses of any kind whatever do exist in those departments, 
no matter who may profit by them, we may look with confidence 
to the long tried fearlessnes and impartiality of the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives for their discovery and correction. On 
^ hom else can we rely for that clear sighted and disinterested vi 


16 


gilance which is now necessary to satisfy the honest jealousy of 
the public mind ? 

These are the principles and considerations, Fellow Citizens, 
by the adoption of which, as a basis of compromise you may save 
thd country from that disastrous and corrupting contest in the 
House of Representatives, which is now impending. What basis 
of compromise would be there adopted, Heaven only knows ! Do 
those dream who apprehend that the most questionable means 
would there be used to control the event ? And will you, Fellow 
Citizens, while the result is in your hands, while a compromise 
is practicable upon the basis of important principles, calmly throw’ 
those principles, your votes, and the result all to the winds 'l 
The votes of Nevv-York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, united with 
Mr. Clay’s present support, secure his election. To which of 
those states is he so unacceptable, that they should hesitate ? 
Not surely to New-York, where he has now the support of as 
many republicans in the Legislature as either of the candidates, 
and more out of the Legislature than all the others together!— 
Where he has no hostility from either party to encounter, being 
the only one in fact, who can unite the feelings as well as the 
votes of a majority of the Republican members of the Legisla¬ 
ture, 

Of his general, not to say universal popularity in Pennsylvania, 
there is no doubt. The people of that state know and recognize 
his peculiar claims to their affections and confidence. His zeal 
and fidelity in the cause of her cherished industry, could not be 
witnessed without exciting corresponding sentiments in her peo¬ 
ple. That a vast majority of the people of Pennsylvania would 
hail such a compromise with delight, there cannot be room for a 
moment to doubt. 

It is, then, from Virginia, that we are to look for opposition 
either to the principles, or to the individual on which a compro¬ 
mise, so auspicious, is proposed ? Will the people of that State, 
pursuing some phantoms of constitutional construction, which must 
ever elude their grasp, raise the “ bloody flag ” against a states¬ 
man who is an ornament to the state which gave him birth, as he 
is to the country, to whose best services his life has been devoted ? 

But I forbear to urge his talents and public services. The} 
need no illustration. It is now ei ghteen years since Henry Clay 
first appeared in the national councils. In 180C\ he entered the 
Senate of the United States, and since that period either as Sena¬ 
tor or Representative in Congress, his sentiments upon every 
great question of national policy have been before the country.— 
His profound views as a statesman, his patriotism and eloquence 
have every year added to his reputation at home and abroad.— 
Mingling as he has, with little intermission, in all the great debates 
and political contests which have successively occupied and agita¬ 
ted the national legislature, his supremacy as “ lord of the debate,” 
has been at every successive ons6t. the more conspicuous and ub~ 


17 


questioned. In those debates, always obstinate and animated, of¬ 
ten angry, and sometimes tumultuous, he has ever stood unshaken ; 
equally firm in the cau-e of his country and the confidence of the 
representatives of the people. In all their deliberations upon the 
national policy he has been listened to, as the most sagacious 
and undaunted statesman of the age. When he has appealed to 
the courage and patriotism of the House, as during the War, how 
powerful, how irresistible has his voice been proved ! Through 
all the revolutions of that house, through all the phases of rising 
and setting, of waxing and waning statesmen, in and out of it, he 
alone has been the same. His step has been ever onward.— 
Nothing has arrested, nothing impeded it. His march has been 
in the face of his couutry. Other and more splendid exertions he 
may yet make, but none that can add lustre to the palm he has al¬ 
ready won. When those lofty efforts of his genius and eloquence 
have been made, every eye was upon him It has always been the 
gaze of an admiring, an approving people. How often has his 
popularity been tried ? and where was the balance ever found to 
waver ? 

Finally, the Voice of the age, that voice which cannot be 
bought nor sold ; which no executive, no faction can corrupt or 
alter ; that voice has pronounced its irreversible decision in his 
favor ; as at once, a sagacious and profound, an eloquent and in¬ 
defatigable, a pure and incorruptible statesman as ever adorned 
our country. 

Such, Fellow-citizens ! is the candidate on whom New-York, 
Pennsylvania, and Virginia may compromise, and avert the most 
serious misfortune incident to our political institutions. Passion 
and the selfish views of a few individuals, prejudice and intrigue 
may keep alive the present state of parties, till it is too late to re¬ 
cede. But if those states suffer it, they give the death blow to 
their own just influence : they are treacherous to their obvious 
interests, reckless of those of the nation at large. Surely common 
sense would dictate that they should rather consult their own 
judgment and inclination in the compromise that, after all, must take 
place, than to defer it till their power is gone ; till they have no 
more voice with their millions than the few thousands in three of 
the states, which send each a single representative ! Those who 
from any speculations of personal advantage, shall oppose such a 
compromise, will aim to betray those states; to deliver them, 
shorn of their locks of strength and with their orbs extinguished, 
like Sampson of old, for sport to the Philistines. With the lever 
of intrigue, they would push the primary planets of our political 
system from their orbits, and degrade them into the satellites of 
some political bargainer! 

Republican Members of the New-York Legislature! are you 
prepared to cast the thirty-six votes of New-York upon the wa¬ 
ters, and “ stand the hazard of the die 5 ’ in the House of Repret- 

3 




18 


sentaiives ? Those votes are within two. equal to the united 
weight of NINE STATES in the electoral colleges : viz.— Ver¬ 
mont, Rhode Island, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, 
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri! I will not for a moment believe 
that you can hesitate to embrace a compromise, which secures 
the choice of that democratic candidate, most popular in the state ; 
which alone makes her voice felt in the election. You can never, 
Fellow Citizens, lam persuaded, follow any individual so blindly, 
as to reject a compromise which you have thirty-six votes to en¬ 
force, and go to the House of Representatives in search of a com¬ 
promise, where one u small voice” will be all that remains to her. 

I might urge upon the democratic members of our legislature, 
another motive, which with them, must and should have great 
weight. One of our most popular and distinguished citizens, our pre¬ 
sent Chancellor, the Hon. Nathan Sanford, is supported by the 
friends of Mr. Clay, in and out of the state, as a candidate for the 
Vice-Presidency. The second office in the national Government 
will not be repelled by the democratic members of our legislature, 
from a fellow citizen so well calculated, by his talents and experi¬ 
ence, to fill it with honor and dignity. Uniform and consistent in 
his attachment to the democratic party, he has stood aloof, as his 
station, no less than his inclination prompted, from the factions of 
the hour, pursuing the even tenor of his way, in the indefatigable 
discharge of his public duties. The friends of Mr. Clay looked 
early to him, as one in whose character, as a statesman and jurist, 
in whose mild and amiable deportment, they recognized the same 
qualities which won the lamented Lowndes, the esteem and con¬ 
fidence of all who knew him. Like that lamented statesman, 
while he held his seat in the senate of the United States, he was 
distinguished by his intimate and thorough acquaintance with our 
political and commercial relations. Like him, be has “ neither 
courted or avoided office.” His late course, in declining a nomi¬ 
nation for the office of Governor, a course marked with equal dig¬ 
nity, moderation, and delicacy, must still more confirm his title to 
the support of the democratic members of the Legislature. If, 
therefore, they would give their support to the claims of a citizen 
so popular, and so qualified for the station in question, how other¬ 
wise can they act, than to unite cordially with those who have 
from the first supported his pretensions ? 

In New-York, therefore, this cause of compromise must stand 
upon the strongest ground. It is only necessary that common 
sense should do its office, and all the trammels of faction and in¬ 
trigue must dissolve, and restore the democratic party to itself 
again. 

The people of Pennsylvania cannot but partake of the common 
wish, to prevent an election in the House of Representatives. In 
fact, they may be said to have already taken the first step in this 
compromise : since their convention at Harrisburgh, so long ago 


19 


as the 4th of March last, asserted the leading democratic principle 
on which it is to be based ; and asserted it unquestionably in ac¬ 
cord with the feelings and sentiments of three fourths of their de¬ 
mocratic party. If then, the people of Pennsylvania would main¬ 
tain that principle, to do it effectually , they must save the question 
from the House of Representatives. For little will it matter on 
what principles they give their votes, if they are so given that the 
question must at last, be decided there. Their own obvious in¬ 
terests, therefore, and higher and more paramount considerations 
of the national welfare, appeal to them with equal force, to unite 
with New-York and Virginia, without delay. None of the per¬ 
sonal parties which now exist, can prevail singly, either in the 
electoral colleges or in the House of Representatives. Then why 
not now put a period to their useless and pernicious struggles ? 
Pennsylvania has taken the lead in asserting the first principles of 
their compromise. Will she not, then, take care to secure its 
practical triumph ? To that end, it is only necessary that her 
people should weigh the present crisis, and pronounce their judg¬ 
ment freely and openly. 

With respect to Virginia, it is certain, that unless this compro¬ 
mise is acceptable to her independent and enlightened citizens, 
there is none that can be proposed to which she can or will ac¬ 
cede. So intractable, so arrogant a spirit, it is impossible that 
the people of Virginia can cherish. That class of her politicians 
which denies the constitutional power of congress to construct 
roads and canals , which denies its power to create a national 
bank , which denies the appellate jurisdiction exercised by the 
supreme court of the U. S. over the state courts, and which is 
yearly ushering into existence some new constitutional doctrine ; 
this class may to the last oppose any compromise which does not 
recognize their doctrines and candidate. But the people of Vir¬ 
ginia can never be content to follow leaders so obstinate, however 
sincere they may believe them to be in their adherence to their 
favourite notions It would be hard indeed, to deny them the 
credit of sincerity. For nothing but a sincere conviction of the 
truth of their theories could ever induce them to persist in a con¬ 
troversy which they must perceive is hopeless and forlorn to the 
last degree. I hat is a point which admits of no dispute. It has 
been over and over again settled in the most solemn manner by 
th Legislature, by the Supreme Court, and, if possibly still 
more conclusively, by the public voice. 

But should these politicians undertake to lead the people of Vir¬ 
ginia a chase after some impracticable theories, and never once 
call their attention to the practical subjects which Pennsylvania 
and Ohio have pointed to, in so impressive a manner ? One would 
have thought that this school, with all their pretensions to the cen¬ 
sorship of the republic, would have been the first, when executive 
influence was busy in the election, to “ snuff the approach of cor- 




2D 


jiuption in every tainted breeze.”—But so it has been, that while 
they have been straining every nerve to curtail the powers of the 
national legislature, the noiseless, stealthy pace ofexecuti\e influ¬ 
ence, has entirely escaped their attention. Not only so—but even 
the loudest, the most “ dreadful note of preparation,” which has 
been sounded by the retainers and body guards of the executive 
departments has not sufficed to awaken their jealousy. The same 
politicians who are so alarmed at the powers which the constitu¬ 
tion conveys to the representatives of the people, that they would 
guard against them by locking up that instrument, as jealous guar¬ 
dians sometimes lock up their wards, they see no danger in the 
omnipresent, all-absorbing influence of the executive departments! 
One would have thought that no gales, scented with the influence 
of any of those departments, could have blown through their con¬ 
fines without startling the. verjr soil from its bed ! When cabinet 
candidates so abounded, that a seat in the cabinet was sufficient to 
make its occupant a candidate and to create a party in his support, 
who would not have expected these most zealous expounders of 
the constitution to have sounded all their tocsins, to have lighted 
every beacon, till the state was illumined in the blaze. When the 
cries of such parties were heard, forestalling and drowning the pub¬ 
lic voice, who would not have looked to see those champions rouse 
at such ominous sounds, like the lion from his lair.” Such a 
strange, mingled din, issuing at once from three departments of the 
government, could not fail to rouse them. They did rouse : hut, 
strange to tell! it was only to nail their ensign, blazoned with their 
new devices of constitutional construction, to the mast of one of 
those departments ! 

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania and Ohio have stepped forth and taken 
their stand against those currents of executive influence, which 
were threatening to prostrate all the barriers of public opinion. 
In the spirit of genuine democracy, they have entered their so¬ 
lemn protest against the line of cabinet succession, which was dai¬ 
ly gaining strength from precedent : which was, in the instance of 
one of those candidates, even claimed to be the a legitimate succes¬ 
sion !”—and which, if left undisturbed, threatened to become the 
settled law of the land. In this, they have spoken the native, 
unadulterated language of Virginia. While that class of her po¬ 
liticians, which has long claimed to be the sole depository of her 
confidence, the mouth piece of her sentiments, have looked on in 
silence and complacency. “ Was that done like Cassius ?”— 
Should not these Arguses, jealous as they are of the Legislative 
branch of the Government, have had an eye equally keen for the 
movements of the executive departments ? But alas ! in propor¬ 
tion as their jealousy of the former has increased, their vigilance 
toward the latter seems to have been lulled to rest ! 

People of Virginia ! are you resolved to follow this blind jea¬ 
lousy to the House of Piepresentatives ? What possible motive 


^an yoflhave, Fellow Citizens, in espousing the doctrines, and 
adhering to the candidate of those politicians, to the last, when, if 
that candidate should succeed, those doctrines can never—never 
be realized ? Really it seems to be trifling with your understand¬ 
ings to suppose that you can hesitate which of the two to choose 
—the compromise which you can make so easily—or that com¬ 
promise which must be made in the House of Representatives, 
nobody can tell how, and possibly most adverse to the feelings 
and wishes of all three states. If this case was less clear than it 
is ; if there was room for doubt, I might urge upon you, mo¬ 
tives of a higher nature. I might appeal to that patriotic spirit 
which nas, on every great occasion, animated the people of Vir¬ 
ginia. I might call on you to recollect that on the spirit of mutual 
concession and compromise our government was founded, and by 
that only, can be kept on its foundation. 1 might entreat you to 
sacrifice personal predilections to avert the most serious calami¬ 
ties. But this cannot be necessary, since all your predilections 
and native attachments, must have pleaded this cause already, 
more powerfully than any argument I could urge. 

Fellow Citizens, sincerely impressed with the weight and vital 
importance of the considerations I have most respectfully submit¬ 
ted to you ; convinced that they must be seconded by the good 
sense and public voice of the three states, which have the issue in 
their hands, it remains only to commend the cause *to your exer¬ 
tions and patriotism. It needs only that the first step should be 
taken openly and decisively in either state : the others would un¬ 
questionably follow. If the sanction of the public voice in either 
state is given, the compromise may be considered as already ex¬ 
ecuted. Who will then attempt to thwart or oppose it ?—Who¬ 
ever shall undertake to array himself against it, or to hold out 
against a deliberate compromise of public opinion, cannot be mis¬ 
understood There will be no room for evasion or pretences. 
There will be but one question : is he opposing the acknowledged 
public good, the acknowledged public voice, for a pure and ho¬ 
nourable, or a selfish and corrupt private end? Happily the 
good sense of the people must and will triumph. It is the law of 
our land, that their general sentiment is always honest and disinte¬ 
rested, and rarely, if ever, in the wrong. The public mind, in 
this respect, resembles the fabled harp of Memnon. Let the rays 
of light but fall on it, and by some inherent, invisible power, it ne¬ 
ver fails to respond. 

To the friends of Mr. Clay , who have been heretofore and are 
now using their honest exertions in his cause, J may be pardoned 
for addressing a few words. The views ofthe question which have 
been presented, afford the most animating considerations for per¬ 
severance in their honorable endeavours. Theirs is not merely 
the cause of an individual : they are not contending for the triumph 
of a faction. It is the cause ofthe democratic party and its prin 


Tl 


tuples ; of our political tranquillity and of the country. Exalted 
as the character, and meritorious as the services of the individual 
may be, whom they advocate, let them be ever secondary to the 
principles which are asserted in connection with his pretensions.— 
With those for their rallying point, let them persevere to the end, 
and if they should not at last succeed in saving the question from 
the House of Representatives, they will at the worst, have the con¬ 
solation, that these principles can now count on the support of more 
states in the House of Representatives than any other candidate : 
That, however doubtful intrigue and treachery may for a while 
render the issue there, the broad deep current of democratic feel¬ 
ing and principle is with them and is almost sure to triumph even 
there. Let them also recollect, that to avert the violence and 
thwart the intrigues that are to be apprehended, Mr Clay is, 
from his own known character, and the position he occupies, of all 
others the best qualified. Higher motives than these, they cannot 
need to induce them to persevere in the same moderate, but de¬ 
termined course, which they have heretofore pursued. 

Fellow-citizens of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia ! In es¬ 
saying my feeble voice in favour of this compromise, 1 have not 
been unaware of the opposition it must encounter. It is of course 
to be expected,- that hot headed and short-sighted partizan^ will 
oppose it with all their idle clamors, and their abler and designing 
leaders with their more efficient intrigues. But, on the other 
hand, as the last momentous step approaches, the nation must pause, 
and those clamors and intrigues must become every hour more un¬ 
availing. Every member of the democratic party in those states, 
must see the obvious interest which they have in this compromise, 
and with that interest his own must be as obviously identified. A 
compromise which secures the influence of the democratic party 
in those states must be equally favourable to the influence of those 
individuals who are most interested in its triumph. Who, then, in 
those states, can be so infatuated as to oppose their united interests 
and those of the Union ? If the national interests were less deeply 
at stake than they are ; if they stood indifferent in the contest, 
those states might, from their own interests alone, be expected to 
act in concert. But motives of an infinitely higher nature* call on 
them, in the name of the country, to unite their strength without 
delay. Fellow-citizens ! that call is to you—you have heard it ; 
it is for you to decide whether you will answer it. If you listen 
to it, you decide the event. If you close your ears against it, the 
issue is cast to the chances of combination and intrigue ; the elec¬ 
tion must then inevitably go to the House of Representatives.— 
What shall then take place, you cannot as now decide.—“ What 
may come—should give us pause.’’--The infuriated spirit of faction 
will rule the hour. The country will be agitated and inflamed 
beyond all former example. If, as some apprehend, corruption 
should “gather head” and decide the contest, then indeed the glory 


I 


1 


23 


of our republic has departed. Its epitaph may soon be written. 
For, so surely, as like causes produce like effects, her nanue will 
speedily be added to that beacon list of republics, which have 
flourished until corruption has sapped their foundations. A few 
short years will then make all our institutions, if they escape the 
shocks of violence, the mere sport of bribery and venality. 

These clouds, fellow-citizens, it is in your power, by your uni¬ 
ted voice to disperse. The voice of the nation will follow 
yours, and its security and welfare be your recompense. 


A CITIZEN OF NEW-YORK, 




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